Articles by: Krit Dwivedi

“This is ridiculous. These people don’t understand what F1 is about. I take my hat off to Vettel” – Niki Lauda on those that boo. [1]

What we heard from the Mercedes chairman is the true admiration and respect for a fellow driver. Lauda, more than anyone, truly understands what Formula One is about. A triple world champion who got there through the pursuit for perfection.

Formula One is a sport. It’s a global, multi-billion pounds competition in which brave mavericks risk their lives for the ascent of the world championship. The ultimate aim is to win through the collective hard work of a team. Nothing is handed on a platter and each point is truly fought for. It is earned.

There is an inherent beauty in victory; in the attainment of perfection. Vettel and Red Bull in Singapore demonstrated a car and driver in perfect harmony. A shining example of a symbiotic relationship that each and every driver and team seeks to attain. Those who truly know Formula One, understand, respect and doff their hand off to that, as we saw Martin Whitmarsh, Fernando Alonso and Stefano Domenicalli straight after.

Booing the righteous, deserved winner of a competition is booing the sport itself. A deserved winner deserves to be celebrated [2], for he has proven to be the best on the sporting arena you choose to follow. An intregral part of sportsmanship is the respect for the winner.

Even if the race is “boring” in your view, please respect the winner. It is not Vettel’s fault that he’s simply performing a cut above the rest. He is doing his job. He is doing what any one of his compatriots work and train hard, day and night for.

I personally do not find the races boring. A race is not just about the winner. It’s about each and every fight that happens down the field for each and every point. I personally really enjoyed the Singapore Grand Prix, both of the spectale that was Vettel-Red Bull and all those wheel-to-wheel clashes down the field.

Formula One, in my mind, is an elite sport. There are drivers out there who are literally risking their lives every time they get into vehicles for the joy of victory. You have Kimi Raikkonen racing from 13th of 3rd despite suffering from the debilitating pain of spinal neuralgia.

We are all, of course, entitled to our own opinions. This is mine. If you enjoy booing a deserved winner, please find a myriad of other sports that welcome it.

An uncomfortable truth endemic to Formula One that is the fact that nearly all “great” champions happen to be ruthless, petulant brats. Today Vettel decided to join the likes of Senna, Schumacher and Prost, thus admonishing any gentlemanly “nice guy” charades.

The good, the bad and the ugly. Today, we saw all three facets of Formula One. Brilliant wheel-to-wheel racing, team orders and their disobeyal.

The problem (or appeal of, depending on your perspective) with Formula One is that the sport is designed around a conflict of interest. It is in each of the individual driver’s interest to gain the maximum 25 points, whereas it is in the team’s interest to gain the maximum 43 points.

We saw incredible racing between both the Red Bull drivers for the lead and both Mercedes drivers for the final podium. In both cases, the team did what was in its interests – to safely maintain track position. The team remains oblivious to the positioning of the 1-2 or 3-4, as long as it is a 1-2 or 3-4. Any wheel to wheel racing between its two identical cars constructed collectively by the might of a hundreds team members is an unnecessary risk, leading to situations like Turkey 2010 where points are lost due to uncontrollable driver egos. As I said rather cheekily on twitter, the heart-rates on the pit-wall must’ve been sky high.

BREAKING: Christian Horner and Adrian Newey’s average heart rate is now 210 beats per minute #F1

Truth be told, the team in reality has pretty much no control over a drivers action on the track. They can only chose the repurcutions of the actions, not the actions themselves. Today, saw two drivers take the diametrically opposite stance. Both Vettel and Rosberg were specifically told to maintain position and not overtake their team mates. Rosberg obeyed. Vettel didn’t.

Rosberg was clearly frustrated and told the team to “remember this one”. But post race he did say that he understood it (team orders) go both ways and he drives for Mercedes. Lewis was a top gentleman on the podium and said “it’s not the best feeling standing here. If I’m honest I feel Nico should be standing here.”

Vettel has apologised and should rightly be slapped on the wrist by the team. But it doesn’t change the result. Vettel earned 7 points over Webber and who knows how crucial those will be come Brazil.

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It was an unusually warm, sunny Monday at the McLaren Technology Centre. The sun glistened off the water in the picturesque lake encompassing the beautiful surroundings. It was a good day, for a good reason. McLaren were victors of the last three races. Hungary, Spa and Monza were all won with increasing dominance. At the heart of this achievement was the MP4-27. After receiving harsh criticism from its world champion drivers at his home race, he had developed into a race winning beast over the summer break. Gone was the early season uncertainty and a period of seemingly McLaren dominance loomed.

The MP4-27 was quite understandably quite chuffed with himself. He epitomised the ‘never give up’ attitude that characterised McLaren. During the tough times, he look heart from the trials and tribulations of his 2009 brother and vowed to be back at the sharp end, fighting for Santander shaped silverware.

Today he was in Martin Whitmarsh’s pristine office expecting a glowing performance review. Paddy Lowe was there as well, presumably about to tell him about about the juicy upgrades planned for him for the next, Asian leg of races. He expected to be lauded and praised. After all, he was the standout performer. No McLaren since the championship winning 2008 old spec MP4-23 had won three races in a row. He was the best McLaren of the new breed of 2009 spec cars and had finally quenched the Red Bull dominance that plagued the sport. He was a proud man, and righty so. He was even silently hoping to secure a better parking spot in the factory, perhaps next to the MP4-4.

“Thanks a lot for being here today, I know Monza was just yesterday.” Martin started. “Of course, no worries, I’ve got a bit of a break before I pack off to Singapore and thought it’ll be a good idea to come back to the factory and personally thank all the team members who’ve made me that I am”, he replied courteously. Martin and Paddy nodded in agreement, “It’s been quite the turn around from Silverstone hasn’t it? That’s what we’re all about here at McLaren, fighting and never giving up!”

After a hearty chat about the emotional journey of the last few months, Martin steered the conversation to an unexpected avenue. “Yes, well… The topic for today is next years car. I know things are looking good for this year now but as you know, we always need to plan ahead…” “Of course! I can’t wait to see what you all have planned for me! Can you please sort out some snazzy double DRS system like the one that Lotus ran at Spa?” the MP4-27 excitedly interjected. He was now firing on all cylinders.

Paddy and Martin exchanged a forlorn look. With a solem tone, Martin slowly said, “About that… I’m sorry, but there is no easy way to say this… We’ve decided it be best if we try something new for 2013″. An eerily silence followed. He was stunned. Never in his worst nightmares, not even after his performances in Valencia, did the MP4-27 imagine this scenario. This was no celebratory meeting. He was being laid off.

“Why??” He inquired in a low voice, struggling to get in grips with the situation at hand. Paddy empathic ally explained, “To be completely honest, it’s nothing about you right now. You’re a brilliant car. You’ve been the best we’ve built for a while. But it’s all about looking forward. Our engineers predict that you’ll reach your development saturation point sometime near Barcelona next year. Then it’ll be a massive struggle to keep improving and upgrading you to stay at the front of the pack. We want to save you, and save us from the pain of slipping back again.”

MP4-27: “Harder to develop? But isn’t that a struggle all other teams will face? I mean every Red Bull has been just a focused evolution of the car that came before, from the RB5 and look at where that’s gotten them!”

Paddy: “You know how this works… We like to take risks here”

MP4-27: “What can the new car have that I don’t have? What can’t you just add to me to make me even faster? Change my whole rear suspension if you have to. Change the sidepods to those wild L shaped ones from last year. Give me a nose job and raise my front wing height. You can get plenty of new avenues!”

Paddy: “Well… There is this new front pull rod suspension idea we’ve been dying to give a go. We reckon it can get us at least 5 additional points of front downforce…”

MP4-27: “Front pull rod suspension?! You mean the one that shed of a car the Ferrari F2012 has?!”

Paddy: “We reckon we can do a much better job”

The debate raged for another hour. Martin just observed silently, still not fully sure if he’d made the right call. He new the ’27 was a fighter, and a great car. But it’s all about the future. It’s about making big calls and taking risks. That, is Formula One. He had just made another brave call the weekend before, signing up Sergio Perez to replace Hamilton.

The MP4-27 was distraught for weeks after this news was broken to him. So much so, he retired from the lead at the next race and then seeded dominance back to those charging Bull. Vettel made it look like 2011 again with 4 consecutive wins. However, he wasn’t going to slowly fade into the history books. He won the last two races and once again demonstrated his pace. He turned out to be, on average, the fastest car of 2012. He left setting a high bar for the all-new MP4-28.

Only McLaren could have made the decision to scrap the fastest car of last season and replace it with an all new concept. Especially so in a year in which every other team decided to simply focus, refine and address the shortcomings of their previous car.

As the MP4-28 takes to qualifying tomorrow morning seemingly out of pace, spare a thought for the MP4-27. He was a good car. He reckons he deserved better. Only time will tell if McLaren made the right call. Is it worth developing a new concept when you had a great base to work with and have a big revolution in technical regulations coming up in 2014?

Welcome to the very first TechF1 podcast for 2013. We touch on a whole host of topics – trends to look out for this year, Mercedes’ conundrum and those mysterious round black things made by Pirelli. We even touch upon the exciting, progressive and revolutionary changes in 2014. The episode was recorded well before the Jerez test but some problems have meant that it unfortunately hasn’t been able to be released until this day. However, it’s a cracking show previewing the year, which stands the test of time and manages to stay very relevant today.

Each Formula One fan will have his own opinions on Michael Schumacher, such is the mans polarising nature. However, you’ll be hard pressed to find any other Motorsport personality that has resonated with so many millions outside the sports vacuumed bubble. This summer I had the opportunity to visit rural India for some healthcare experience. The people there hadn’t heard of Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso or even Aryton Senna. Yet of Micheal Schumacher and Ferrari, they knew well.

There are “binders full of” records and achievements that one can tout of Schumacher. His era with Ferrari from 2000-04 saw a win percentage of 56% and a podium percentage of 77% He won more than every other race and was only off the podium less than once every 4 races. The majority will remember Schumacher as the Red Baron who ruled the pinnacle of Motorsport. Yet, in my view, that was not Schumacher at his very best.

Schumacher’s greatest achievement was his influence on the very sport itself. He was the purveyor of a tectonic shift gone under-appreciated in the undercurrents of his exuberance. The vast majority of the generation of young Formula One fans (which at the age of 20 I consider myself part of) simply haven’t been exposed to what I consider to be greatest display of sustained driving excellence in the sport’s history. Think an amalgamation of Vettel’s supreme excellence in 2011 and Alonso’s remarkable relentlessness in 2012. That was Michael Schumacher of the 1990s, especially in his early Ferrari days.

Formula One was a very different sport in the early ’90s. There existed this belief that a race weekend was compromised very much of two halves: the first qualifying where a driver would give it everything for one spectacular lap. The second the race, where a driver would sustain a paced, tactical battle of attrition with his competitors. One couldn’t possibly drive 60 laps akin to the fervent intensity of qualifying! Niki Lauda famously said “The secret is to win going as slowly as possible.” The exert minimum strain to best sustain your mental and physical abilities for the trials of a world championship.

Schumacher took that established norm and simply blew it out of the water. He brought an intensity to the sport never seen of before that took it by storm. Physically, he was a relative Arnold Schwarzenegger for the current grid of driver, who simply couldn’t respond. Damon Hill & Nigel Mansell recall incidences in their own career where towards the end of a race, their tiring muscles and dwindling concentration where no match for a rampaging Schumacher who would be driving each lap as if it was his last. He made it seem remarkably easy and wouldn’t even appear to break sweat at the end of some races. Asked about his early ascension on a SkyF1 program he simply noted:

Today’s Formula One drivers train at altitudes, run triathalons and excessively manage their food and fluid intake. They’re all built like pro-altheles. That is a direct result of Schumacher’s influence of our very sport sport. He raised the bar and brought an off track component of fitness and training to maxmise on track benefits. Formula One today is a better, even more competive sport thanks to his contribution.

A Tale of Two Races – Brilliance Distilled

As is often the case with great sport stories, the circumstances in place viewed retrospectively suit the protagonist. Shumacher’s notion of racing flat out was a perfect match for low fuel sprint racing of the time. He was a famous critic of the Pirelli tyres on his comeback, since he had to lend more effort into managing tyre life instead of pushing the limits of the car itself. The best demonstration of Schumacher’s speed and determination was shown at Hungary 1998. Battling the quicker McLarens of Haikkenen and Coulthard, Schumacher was relegated to a third and effectively championship challenge ending position. The Ferrari pit crew, lead by Ross Brawn gambled on Schumacher’s racing finesse and opted for a three stop strategy asking for a tall order: making up around 25 seconds in 18 laps. Schumacher delivered. And then some. Each following sector was faster than the last, leaving a trail of purple on the timesheet. He lapping constantly 1.5 seconds faster than the whole field, even faster than his qualifying pace.

Schumacher’s first victory for Ferrari is perhaps his very finest. Rain. The perennial equaliser of machinery and appraiser of inherent talent. The 1996 Spanish Grand Prix saw Schumacher lapping a whole three seconds faster in a car which was over a second slower in the dry. In conditions which led to just 6 cars finishing the car. It was a performance best described as ’Senna-esque’ which earned him the title “Regenmeister”.

The Schumacher-Ferrari era

Schumacher’s utter dominance in the early 2000s doesn’t sit well with passionate Formula One fans. Some have always highlighted the above advantages and doubted Schumacher. They feel a sense of pride being “in the know” of the real in-depth aspects of Formula One. The ones who’d tell their mates down in the pub in 2004 “He’s not as good as he looks you know”. It’s simply true: Schumacher held signficant advantages during that tenture at Ferrari: Bespoke, custom built, durable Bridgestone tyres; a private test team and test track (Fiorano) to endlessly test new parts; a clear ‘second driver’ and of course, the colossal budget of the prancing horse.

However, just as true were the significant disadvantages Ferrari had in 1996. “Truck”, “pig”, and “accident waiting to happen” here the labels conjugated to the uncompetitive Ferrari’s of the early nineties by Alain prost. The poor performance of the Ferrari pit crews was a running joke amonst mechanics.

Schumacher became a beconing leader for Ferrari, a figure with the gravitas of consecutive world championships looked up in admiration by every engineer at Maranello. A true team player, along with Jean Todt and Ross Brawn Schumacher simply brought about one of the most remarkable transitions in F1 history. You don’t simply “chance into” into a good team – you galvanise and build it piece by piece. Hamilton’s remarking on his own voyage with Mercedes, hoping the replicate the same efforts.

Let his dominant machinery not not detract from the talent and efforts of a remarkable individual who had more than proven his credentials well before he bored many into irrational anger towards him. Eddie Jordan recalls a young Schumacher testing an F1 car for the very first time at Silverstone and within the space of an hour lapping faster than Jordan’s race drivers.

Legacy

307 races spanning a period of time greater than my lifetime. Competing and beating Senna, Prost, Mansell, Haikkenen, Raikkonen and Alonso. Attaining a collosal seven world titles – the amount of Senna and Prost combined.

Some have questioned whether he’s tarnished his legacy by competiting with Mercedes from 2010. There have certainly been dissapointments in the comeback. I’ve covered the trials, tribulations and failures of Mercedes in a separate article but retrospectively, it’s obvious to see the appeal of Mercedes for Schumacher. An automotive goliath, deeply ingrained in German culture that enabled his entry into the sport he dominated giving him the opportunity to compete against what was hailed as the best grid of drivers? You can see how Ross Brawn appealed to Schumacher’s inner competitive soul.

Still, it takes some skill for a 43 year old to drag a below-par car onto pole position at the hardest circuit and beating drivers half his age. His luck and reliability this year have been nothing short of atrocious – 5 retirements in the first 7 races where the Mercedes was even slightly competitive.

Here’s a confession – I was never a Schumacher fan growing up. I was an ardent supporter of the ‘Flying ‘Finn’ Mika Häkkinen and vivdly remember cheering in disbelief that overtake at Spa 2000. The Finn’s lighthearted character clashed with the German’s steely nature.

Thanks to his comeback and onset of maturity at the solem age of 40, you saw a more human Schumacher in his comeback. Not a charecterised part-driving machine where breakneck competition was the only was forward. There no incidents like Jerez 1997 or Monaco 2006. He’d always have a charming smile on his face on good or bad days, referring to “his boys” and the work they were putting in at the factory. He won me over and I found myself cheering for him at Canada 2011 and all throughout 2012. The more I researched and looked up on him from the ’90s, the more impressed I became. I may not be a fan of him, but I can appreciate incredible showcases of driving masterclass when I see them.

Schumacher-the-driver’s legacy will always remain untarnishied. The present can’t change the past and won’t erode on scaresly believeable performance such as Spain 1996. In his comeback, Schumacher-the-human rose to the top.

This long article (thank you for reading this far) is a homage to the man who defines and personifies modern Formula One: the good, the bad and the ugly. The dominance, the struggles and the controversies. The likes of Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenburg credit Schumacher’s achievements as their key inspiration for the sport. He took Formula One in Germany from a fringe sport to the nation with the most drivers currently on the grid and third on the all time list of championships. His influence on the sport in simply unquestionable.

In an interview with Top Gear whilst masquerading as the legend Stig, when asked why the retired at the end of 2006 he said he had simply nothing more left in the tank to give. He also joked “I missed curry too much” referred to his strict diet during his driving.

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Post Decision Update – Opposite of Hamilton

Vettel was indeed penalised and excluded from the qualifying session. However, it’s interesting to note what for. There are two facets to this story:

Force Majeure: The stewards accepted Red Bull’s reasoning for force majeure – they argued not stopping the car could use significant engine damage. That allowed them to stop the car on the track with no penalty.

Fuel Sample: However, the fuel sample produced was 850ml. This is a clear infringement of the rules and hence the penalty. Red Bull argue there is enough fuel in the tank but rules state it needs to be extracted without any removal of bodywork.

So in essence this is exactly the opposite of what happened to Hamilton. Hamilton’s fuel sample was satisfactory (>1 liter) but the stewards didn’t buy McLaren’s force majeure. Here they did buy Red Bull’s force majeure but they didn’t have enough fuel.

The penalty and end result is the same but I thought my readers would be interested in this difference.

The Stewards’ decision on Sebastian Vettel’s parked car post-qualifying car is bound to be controversial. Almost four hours after the incident, we still don’t have a decision, conclusion and explanation. Whatever their final decision, I strongly believe we should respect it, regardless of own personal allegiances to any driver or team. The steward’s have access a whole database of information us fans aren’t privy too. They’re lead by the remarkable & highly respected Charlie Whiting who I have full faith in being fair & objective.

My stance will stay the same regardless of whether Vettel is penalised or not since this is an article focused on the anatomy of a decision, not the decision itself.

Things are never clear cut in Formula One and failure to produce a fuel sample not an automatic perogative for an exclusion from the session (hence starting last). Hamilton’s decision in Spain is not a precedent for the same here at Abu Dhabi. Here’s the FIA Technical Regulation 6.6.2 that enlists the requirement of a fuel sample:

“Competitors must ensure that a one litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time during the event. “Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards of the meeting), if a sample of fuel is required after a practice session the car concerned must have first been driven back to the pits under its own power.”

The keyword here is one that I tend to dislike: force majeure It’s literally defined as “superior force”, one outside the normal realms of control. The reason I dislike the term is because of its highly subjective nature. The regulation in itself states the stewards need to be satisfied & consider whether they think reasons presented by the team constitute force majeure.

In Spain, the stewards clearly didn’t consider McLaren’s problems with their external fuel delivery system adequate force majeure. It’s important to note that “stewards” aren’t a consistent, homologous body of individuals. No, they change race-by-race! So naturally, their collective opinion of what is force majeure changes race-by-race. It’s a design that’s guaranteed to produce inconsistency. Time will tell what the group in Yas Marina settle for as “force majeure”.

As I stated on twitter, there is a big difference between putting less fuel into the car (Lewis, Spain) thanks to an external problem & a mechanical fuel problem internal to the car itself. This is a hypothetical guess based on what possibly could delay the decision to such extent. If were a Red Bull lawyer paid to argue & protect our teams world championship titles, I would move heaven and earth to come up with a loophole as such to plead/persuade the stewards to grant an exemption of force majeure. That’s why we saw both Christian Horner and Renault track operations chief Remi Taffin headed to the stewards office.

Today’s decision is incredibly tough thanks to the trifecta of a big grey area involved, it’s huge impact on the world championship and the inherant inconsisties of F1 penalties. Whatever the end decision, please respect the stewards and know their limits.

It’s an interesting move from Hulkenburg, whom I believe is the best “young” driver currently on the grid. He has great qualifying speed, a wet pole position to his name (always a marker of a great driver) and is beating the highly regarded and settled Paul Di Resta at Force India.

I reckon there is some some strong Ferrari influence present behind this move. Sauber isn’t necessarily even a move “up” from Force India. Yes, they’ve performed well this year but the main man behind this year’s car (James Key) is no longer present at the team. Force India over the last 3 years have been rather consistent with performance. But Sauber have historically been a ‘stepping stone’ for Ferrari (who supply their engines).

A lot of people believe Vettel will drive for Ferrari come 2014. Whilst I’ll address this issue in detail in another article, but in short: I don’t think he will. I agree with Montezemolo when he says: